Was "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" Orioles fans...

YES THAT

August 07, 1993

YES THAT was "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" Orioles fans heard at Camden Yards the other evening. It was the first time this season. But not the first time the Orioles' long-time 'u seventh-inning stretch song was played at the new ballpark, according to Charles Steinberg, the club's director of public affairs.

And it was just coincidence that it resounded from the loudspeakers the night the ball club was auctioned off, to end the reign of owner Eli Jacobs, who is widely believed to have detested the song.

For many years, the John Denver song was the traditional sound track for home-team rooters at Memorial Stadium. It was dropped in 1988, probably for more reasons than Mr. Jacobs' rumored opinion that it was undignified for a ball club reaching out to the starched-shirt-and-red-suspenders set from Washington. A substantial number of fans missed it badly, and their voices were heard in the Orioles front office.

Mr. Steinberg says Mr. Jacobs objected to the song only at the seventh-inning stretch, so it was replaced by "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." It's played from time to time when it seems to fit the mood. Last Monday night, during a late-inning pitching change as the Os were rallying, Mr. Steinberg decided the atmospherics called for "Country Boy." He checked quickly with senior Orioles officials and ordered it played.

The Orioles won, 7-5. 'Nuff said.

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IN HONOR of the tax bill voted on yesterday, we reprint from the Congressional Record this doggerel Rep. Thomas Ewing, R-Ill., received from a constituent:

Tax his cow, tax his goat,

Tax his pants, tax his coat,

Tas his crops, tax his work,

Tax his tie, tax his shirt,

Tax his chew, tax his smoke,

Teach him taxes are no joke.

Tax his tractor, tax his mule,

Teach him taxes are a rule.

Tax his oil, tax his gas

Tax his notes, tax his cash;

Tax him good, and let him know --

After taxes he has no dough.

If he hollars, tax him more,

Tax him till he's good and poor.

Tax his coffin, tax his grave,

Tax the sod in which he lays.

Put these word upon his tomb:

"Taxes drove me to my doom."

And after he's gone he can't relax;

They'll still be after Inheritance Tax!

* * *

NOTHING is simple in Washington. Here's how Congressional Quarterly magazine identified a key vote in the Senate recently on an appropriations bill: "DeConcini, D-Ariz., motion to table (kill) the McCain, R-Ariz., amendment to the Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, amendment, to prohibit funding for unauthorized federal building projects in the bill."